POOR-PROGNOSIS OF 56 FOLLICULAR THYROID CARCINOMAS WITH DISTANT METASTASES AT THE TIME OF DIAGNOSIS

Background - There is limited clinical information about the prognosti c factors of follicular thyroid carcinoma with distant metastases at t he time of diagnosis. In order to determine these factors, we retrospe ctively analyzed the data of 1,013 thyroid cancer patients. Methods - There were 168 follicular thyroid carcinomas (18.5%), Fifty-six (33.3% ) of them presented with distant metastases at the time of diagnosis. The subjects included 45 female patients with a mean age of 55.4 +/- 1 2.4 years, and 11 male patients with a mean age of 56.8 +/- 12.6 years (p=0.73). Fourteen clinical parameters were coded into the computer f or univariate analyses. Results - Among 56 follicular thyroid carcinom as, 19 patients had a history of previous thyroid operations, and beni gn thyroid nodules were found. Only 46.4% of these cases received a to tal thyroidectomy treatment after the diagnosis was confirmed by a fro zen section during the operation. During the follow-up period, 20 (35. 7%) patients died of metastatic thyroid cancer, When the tumor was lar ger than 3 cm, the tumor size was a significant factor in predicting s urvival (p=0.0273), The survival analysis showed that 31.1% of the fem ales and 54.6% of the males died. Survival was significantly associate d with gender and tumor size. Conclusions - A poor prognosis was demon strated in follicular thyroid cancer with distant metastases at the ti me of diagnosis. Male sex and larger tumor size were associated with p oor prognosis, Failure in diagnosis is one of the main reasons for del aying treatment of follicular thyroid carcinoma.